


The best gift ever

by SinMint



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Best present ever, Birthday, Day 1, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hestia is kind, Hestia is literally my favorite olympian, High School AU, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nico being Nico, Percico Positivity Project, Percico Positivity Week, Percy to the rescue, Sadness, coffee shop AU, first prompt: birthday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-08-09 14:05:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7804696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SinMint/pseuds/SinMint
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is the best present he has ever received, greater than any other.<br/>Nico’s coffee has long since gone cold, but he doesn’t mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The best gift ever

**Author's Note:**

> Please ignore some minor typos.

Day 1 - August 18: Birthday

* * *

 

Nico sits sipping a hot latte. The liquid is blistering, and Nico loves the burning feeling it gives him as he swallows. The café’s lights flicker slightly as the rain beats on the glass. It is his birthday, yet it doesn’t truly feel so. Everything seems to be reflecting his dark heart.

Nico wonders why it is raining. This time of the year was supposed to be hot and dry, warm and welcoming. But Nico guesses nothing would seem welcoming to him. After all, he isn’t famous for being jovial. He is the emo, gay kid everyone shuns. The lightning cackles outside as if laughing at his listless and lonely state, but Nico doesn’t care. Birthdays aren’t that special for him anyway.

Nico thinks it is really satirical, how gay means ‘happy’ and ‘cheery’ and ‘merry’ and all those things Nico isn’t. yet, he’s ‘gay’. It seems as if the word mocks him. What a term. What a world.

There is an only middle-aged woman in the café, Hestia White, whom Nico sees as a caring motherly figure who offers him chocolate every time he visits. She is cleaning the counter free of coffee stains. She runs the Café, where at day it is very much crowded and filled with noisy people and she is assisted with her coworkers. However, with the rain washing down everything in its path today, no one seems to be coming out of their homes. And quite frankly, Nico loves being the only customer here today. It makes him feel more secure.

“Do you need anything, child?” She asks Nico, who shakes his head. Nico loves the plump woman, who reminds him of his mother. The mother whom he never truly got to know. The sadness of the situation catches him unawares and he grips his hot cup tightly. It is burning his skin, but the pain helps him stay clear of overwhelming emotions.

Another lightning flash startles him, and he starts. However, what scared him more wasn’t merely the blinding light, but a silhouette pressed up on the glass of the door which is outlined by it. Nico is not the one to be easily frightened, but he does have his moments.

His apparent scare turns out different, though. A second later, the door opens and standing there is a boy soaked head to toe stumbles in alone. The bell that chimes the arrival of a customer is enough for Hestia to look up from her work and she greets the boy with a formal smile “Hello, may I help you?”

“A hot chocolate. You wouldn’t mind if I soil one of the chairs, right?” The boy who looks no older than 15 says, one of his hands pushing up his dripping wet hair. He is wearing an orange shirt too bright for Nico’s liking, and khaki shorts, as if he had just returned from a forest trip or something. And it was ridiculous, as this was nothing but a huge city.

“No, not at all. Make yourself at home,” Hestia smiles, busying her hands to pour milk and some spoons of cocoa into a mug, and promptly stirring them. The boy beams, his face wrinkling in dimples. He gratefully takes his mug from the lady and pays her generously, and turns to look in the café.

His eyes wander around the deserted tables, then finally on to Nico who is sitting in the darkest corner near the window. Nico fervently hopes that the boy won’t sit with him.

His prayers remain unanswered.

The boy casually strolls to his table, and selectively ignores the dark scowl Nico can’t contain in anymore. There goes any hope of peace, and on his birthday dammit! What were the fates playing at?

Nico tightens his aviator jacket and slumps in further, his mood now freefalling into a void and he’s angrier than he ought to be. Is it too much to ask for peace where he could just be miserable alone without strangers poking on to his private space?

“Hey, mind if I sit here? I don’t like to sit alone.” The boy says, and Nico doesn’t even look up. _Well, I like to sit alone, so you could just bugger off,_ Nico thinks. He scowls deeper. However, the boy sits down unceremoniously into his chair and puts his mug on the table.

“Looks like you didn’t really need my permission,” Says Nico grumpily and swirls his own mug, which has just half of the liquid left. The boy laughs uncomfortably, and Nico looks up for the first time.

The boy is tan, and quite on the lean bit. His arms are muscular, but not overly bulky. More like a swimmer’s. His jet black hair is sodden and dripping-ly so, but still refuses to stay flat and sticks up in various angles. And his eyes are green. No, wait, they are aquamarine, almost emerald. And Nico knows those eyes anywhere.

Nico lets out a very manly squeak, then coughs twice. “P-Percy Jackson?”

Percy looks at him with something akin to confusion and amusement “Sorry, do I know you?”

Nico then looks away. Of course Percy doesn’t know him. Who knows the unpopular, unpleasant homosexual who is hostile to everyone? Obviously not a hot, cool, popular surfer-student who is constantly followed by a band of fangirls.

“No. we haven’t met.” Nico says, acting as if his voice had just not cracked. A lump grows in his throat and he looks up, desperate a little to see in those beautiful eyes that have ten too many times haunted his dreams since the last four years.

“We have, now,” Percy happily takes a sip from his chocolate “How do you know me?”

“Well, who could miss you? You are like the epitome of ‘hot’ at school,” Nico says, now clutching his coffee desperately. Thank god this boy is oblivious as much as he is, or he would have noticed how Nico’s posture has changed.

“You go at Olympus High?” Percy asks incredulously, as if it is shocking for him to have missed Nico “What’s your name?”

“Nico di Angelo. A grade younger than you,” Nico says, “You look too young to be 17 already.”

“Thanks, I guess? I’ll take that as a compliment,” Percy winks at him, and Nico blushes! He does not remember the last time he had blushed! He fights an internal squeal and his heart who is screaming ‘ _ohmigods PERCY JACKSON totally winked at me_!’. He counts this as a great personal achievement anyway.

A smile nevertheless forms on Nico’s lips, and Percy is now totally grinning lopsidedly at him. the rain had now ceased a little so the lightning has stopped, but it is raining cats and dogs anyway. Nico sighs wryly, but he is all too conscious of Percy staring at his face.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” Percy asks, but winces at his penetrative sharp tone. Nico is a little amused by the reaction, but quickly sobers up at the question. His left hand is now curled into a fist under the table, his blunt nails digging into the skin.

“I’m. . .I’m gay.” Nico says quietly, and Percy flinches. Nico waits for Percy to get up and walk away disgusted (which will certainly break Nico) or something. But all Percy does is reach down to Nico’s hand and drags it on the table. He urges the fingers to relax and sooths the half-moons which are now inflamed on his palm.

“Sorry,” Percy says with an apologizing tone “I didn’t know.”

Nico is now genuinely surprised at Percy’s accepting reaction, and breathes “It’s okay.”

However, when Nico looks up at Percy, the guy is smiling.

“What’s so funny?” Nico asks, but Percy shakes his head.

“You are adorable.”

And behold, Nico’s cheeks are heating up again. what was he, a giggly schoolgirl obsessing over her crush? He tries to hold the blush down, but terribly fails. His pale skin didn’t help make things better.

“Thanks,” Nico muttered, and Percy finished the last of his hot drink.

“So, do you have a boyfriend, then?” Percy asks, licking off the cute chocolate-moustache over his lips. Nico gulps, and shakes his head “No one’s interested in a miserable person like me,” He says.

“Oh, I seriously doubt that,” Percy winks at him again, and now Nico’s heart is stuttering.

“What, do you know someone who does?” Nico teases instead, and Percy gives him a coy smile.

“Yes. I’d say I know him intimately, almost.” Percy abruptly stands and leans over the table so that Nico has to look up to meet his eyes with Percy’s turquoise ones. Percy’s face is so close that Nico can feel the puff of breath on his face with every syllable.

“And who might he be?” Nico says, but his mind is now blissfully blank. Percy’s long lashes now ghost on his as they blink, and Nico is now definitely dumbed by the strange bubbles that are seemingly drowning his heart in love.

Nico can almost feel Percy’s smirk on his face “Say, Nico, what if I told you I’m bisexual?”

Nico swallows heavily “I’d be pleased. Very.”

Percy closes that distance between them. Percy’s still wet hair drips on to Nico’s face, their heads stuck at an odd angle, but as Percy leans more and adjusts his face the kiss deepens intimately. Nico gasps when Percy licks his bottom lip, and seizing the opportunity Percy lunges in. Nico moans when he feels Percy’s tongue probe into his mouth, dancing sensually with his tongue. It is obvious that Percy is experienced, but Nico doesn’t mind. He stands up too, as the table had been awkward between them. Percy drags them both to the wall, where he presses Nico up the glass. Nico moans breathily again and entwines his fingers into Percy’s hair, and Percy’s arms reach across Nico to his waist, where he is now gripping almost bruisingly.

A kind cough brings them both out from their trance, and Nico turns to see Hestia smiling warmly at them. He blushes more out of mortification, but she shakes her head fondly. Percy scratches behind his ears in embarrassment, but with a short ‘sorry’ turns to Nico.

“Meet me at break at school tomorrow. I sit at table four in the cafeteria. I’d like to know you better,” Percy smiles.

“O-okay,” Nico croaks out, and promptly clears his throat “it. . .it was my first time. I’ve not dated before.”

Percy’s smile becomes, if possible, even brighter “Say, Nico, will you like to be my boyfriend?”

“Very.” And it is true. Nico feels happier than he had ever felt. Is it the still tingling sensation of his kiss-swollen lips, or the fact that Percy Jackson is now his beau, he doesn’t know. But he wants to belong to someone, have someone to anchor him down. Be there for him and give him the love he obviously needed and couldn’t afford.

“See ya,” Percy calls, and walks out of the shop as quick as he had entered. Nico blinks, an alien love dazed grin growing on his face. His aviator jacket is now a bit wet, but he can dry it off later. He walks to the counter to pay his coffee before he forgets to do so. Hestia gives her a knowing smile, and he flushes.

“It’s good to see you happy,” She admits good-naturedly “I would like to see you as bright as him.”

Nico is struck with the welcoming feeling he had always associated with the woman “Yes. . .”

“You love him, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Nico says without hesitation, because he has known the fact for three years now “I love him.”

She runs the sink and washes three dirty mugs “When are you planning to tell him?”

“Sometime when he’s— when we both are ready. When he knows for sure that he loves me too. I don’t want to burden him with my feelings.”

Hestia nods with an understanding look “Finish up your coffee. Should I heat it up for you?”

Nico shakes his head politely, and picks up his mug as he sits in his table once again. the rain is still pumping ruthlessly, but now it does not seem half as melancholy. Instead, it is beautiful. The water runs and distorts the picture outside the glass, and Nico gazes at it dreamily. The water is pure, and hopeful.

It strikes him that Percy did not know that it was his birthday today, but it does not matter to him. unknowingly, Percy has given him a gift he had always hoped for. A promise of love. And Nico feels uncharacteristically optimistic. It makes him oddly giddy, knowing that he has finally ensnared what he has been longing for so long.

And it is the best present he has ever received, greater than any other.

Nico’s coffee has long since gone cold, but he doesn’t mind.

**Author's Note:**

> AAAAND DONE!  
> I think I'll make this into a multi-chapter story sometime in the near future.  
> Kudos, comments and bookmarks are always and forever appreciated! <3  
> Yes, I am fully and totally aware that it is not Nico di Angelo but in fact Percy Jackson's birthday today. However, seeing that most (read:all) of the authors were preparing works centered on Percy's birthday, I thought that keeping it Nico's birthday instead won't hurt anyone :) hope you enjoy it.


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